Two thirds of U.S. adults are now overweight and one third
are obese, making normal size people an actual minority. Americans have so
ballooned in size, government safety regulators worry that airline seats and
belts won't
restrain today's men who average 194 pounds and women who average 165
pounds, in a crash.

Not everyone agrees that obesity is always a health
problem. You can be overweight and still have normal blood pressure, blood
sugar, HDL cholesterol and other metabolic markers if you exercise, say some,
pointing to U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin who hiked the Grand Canyon in 2010
despite her extra poundage.

But others say fitness and exercise will not reverse the
health effects of obesity. For example, the British medical journal The
Lancet recently reported that rising
obesity in the U.K. will cause an extra
half a million cases of heart disease, 700,000 cases of diabetes and
130,000 of cancer by 2030. And the overweight and obese are 80 percent more
likely to develop dementia writes Kerry
Trueman on AlterNet.

And there other obesity "negatives." The obese are
less likely to be employed, earn less than people of normal weight and
"have more days of absence from work, a lower productivity on the job and
a greater access to disability benefits," reports the Paris-based policy
group Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Obesity raises Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance
costs and affects national security, writes David Gratzer, M.D., on KevinMD.com,
"since thousands of recruits are turned away from military service
because of failed physicals and poor overall health." It also shortens
"the lifespan of millions of decent Americans who deserve better," he
writes.

Yet eating too much
and exercising too little, considered the root of obesity, are not the only
probable culprits. Here are some other factors that are often overlooked.

Depression and Depression Drugs

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Classic depression is characterized by a decrease in
appetite, weight loss and general despondency. But in 1994, "atypical
depression" debuted, a subtype of depression characterized by an increase in appetite and weight
gain (as well as oversensitivity
to rejection by others). Unfortunately, both types of depression are often
treated with popular
antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro and Paxil and antipsychotics like
Seroquel, Zyprexa and Risperdal, all of which can pack on the pounds. To keep
the weight gain from affecting Pharma sales, the pro-pill site, WebMD,
tells patients that keeping the pounds off is their responsibility since only "healthy eating and exercise help
control your weight gain." But it also counsels if the pill weight gain is
"so strong that it simply can't be offset by any amount of calorie
restricting or even exercise," the psychoactive medication "to help overcome your depression is far
more important." To whom?

The consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has grown
1000 percent since its introduction in soft drinks in 1984. Corn derived
sweetener not only lacks sugar's wild price swings (from unstable geographic
and political regions and trade barriers) it can be pumped into trucks and tanks
unlike bulky dry sugar. It also provides moisture retention, flavor
enhancement, resistance to crystallization (allowing "moist" baked
goods) and "freezing point depression" for ice cream, say industry
professionals. But HFCS also
metabolizes differently from sugar in the body and is so linked to
obesity and diabetes, public health groups recommend regulation (like New
York City's Mayor Bloomberg).
HFCS stimulates production of triglycerides (a type of fat found in the blood),
increases fat deposition in the liver and causes permanent metabolic changes,
say some. Other researchers say U.S. obesity is not so much linked to HFCS as the bioengineered (GMO)
corn it and countless other products are now made from.

Martha Rosenberg is an award-winning investigative public health reporter who covers the food, drug and gun industries. Her first book, Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health, is distributed by Random (more...)